Messages

76

The X-Com Files / Re: 1.8 Feedback

« on: April 14, 2021, 08:18:59 pm »

How does strength help in hitting? Is Hulk a better fencer than Musashi?

It would make sense if there was a more detailed melee system, involving blocks and breaking blocks. But it's X-Com and we cannot do that, or minotaurs will be able to school Lo Wo in melee combat.

Yes, because Hulk would slap the air really hard in front of him and kill him with a shockwave. Hulk be a fencing master now. Also hulk is also really quick despite being a large individual so he has both strenght and reaction.

Now with more serious answer

Reactions make most sense when it comes to one handed weapons, but the larger you go, the heavier your weapon is, hell, XCOM has tons of weapons that are heavier than sectoids themselves. Pistols should be easy to push away, but a minigun, heavy MAGMA shotgun, blaster weapons ?. The soldier can push back now since the sectoid cant just slap it away and actually has to push with his inferior strenght. Yes, it being longer would make it easier for someone like a Muton to wrestle with it since he could get a better grip.

And what about the holder itself ? If the soldier is in a power armour, he has an insane grip and a strenght of a forklift and his gauntlet has probably more mass in it than Sectoid's entire body.

77

The X-Com Files / Re: 1.8 Feedback

« on: April 12, 2021, 11:30:30 pm »

Melee weapons cannot be blocked, they can only miss or do no damage if armour is high enough (and Sectoids arent armoured).

The main problem is that overpowering is based around reactions and melee, not strenght, Sectoids have high reaction stats so even if Humans are much stronger, they can still fail to Sectoids tiny little arms.
To quote the wiki

". You must overcome their defenses with a special close combat test, based on your and your foe's Melee and Reactions. The test also depends on the weapon you use (pistols are best, heavy weapons are worst)."

The close quater combat needs to be based on reactions AND strenght, this way you can still retain Sectoids high reactions as alien troops should have, but have more sensible gun struggle in general.

78

The X-Com Files / Re: 1.8 Feedback

« on: April 10, 2021, 02:34:35 pm »

Spotting mechanic isnt actually whats killing your troops, its the "reveal of the shooter" that does it. If anyone (Your men included) hits anyone, he is revealed, through fog of war or any obsctales. So a sniper can quickscope a Sectoid across the entire map and his budy then shoots the sniper with his plasma rifle through reaction shots way beyond his actual sight range.

This is also why in night missions, the moment you shoot someone, the entire map dogpiles on the XCOM soldier because its the only person they can see.

79

The X-Com Files / Re: 1.8 Feedback

« on: April 07, 2021, 12:36:55 pm »

Melee for dedicated melee enemies tends to hit hard as a truck, Vampire Knight can destroy a Sectopod with 1-2 swings from his sword because he has so much strenght and his sword scales from strenght really well. Same for Minotaurs. Cultists and humans with melee weapons arent as scary and mainly, they are squishy so if a cultist charges you with a iron pipe, he might just die from random reaction hit from someone else,standing 15 metres away from blackops rifle.

Melee needs to be good damage wise because it requires a good setup, ambush and stats and RNG to pull off.

The vampire knight one/two shotting most heavily armoured units might be scary, but the moment when you give your troops flying armours and you turn the Sectopod in to a hover plasma tank ? Well, now he is useless and cant reach you.

So melee seems OK in its intended purpose, yes its weird how someone with a Katana can one shot a sectopod, or Werewolves can rip through a Tank but this is just a case of gameplay and realism departure, for sake of having a more interesting game.

80

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.8: The Shores of Hell

« on: March 31, 2021, 04:27:05 pm »

TBH this is not directly related to the alien arc, but point taken.

I don't know how to improve this situation yet. It's something to work out.

A placeholder of a placeholder would be to have some sort of Alien base raids that spawn overtime and work sort as MiB bases (so until cleared, they will stay) that are hard af but gives you a data slate that gives you the tech. So you can attempt these at any time but trying to storm it with tactical suits will be a nightmarish fight. So you can still do it, kill like 30-40 sectoids and few cyberdisks but most of your A team is dead. So you can buy succes...with blood.
And game would tell you this is like "Anti-Matter testing facility" so you know what will you get when you get there.

Tying this to climaxes of story arcs would be good if you can justify it somewhat (which might be the hard part, since some factions have no connection to alien tech) like raiding Syndicate HQ would get you elerium batteries tech they stole from MAGMA reactor or something like that. MAGMA could then offer you merchandise if you dont tell the council, or you can rattle them out for council points that they got their hands on alien tech even before XCOM. But thats beside the main point.

81

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.8: The Shores of Hell

« on: March 31, 2021, 11:58:10 am »

You mean, besides all of the aliens already a thing since forever?

 alien arc is almost vanilla when i brought up the complain about the RNG, capture rullet being quite boring and infuriating thing that ruins the gradual progression of gear that was somewhat consistent throughout the game. And this is probably my only largest gripe with the mod that mid to late game isnt as fun as the early game.

Well, Solarius said it himself

Maybe when there is an arc, and not just one big placeholder working like vanilla.

I hope it'll happen

The idea is to have less generic missions and more storyline. But I don't have a clear vision yet.

Alot of the tech are also chain-linked to each other or through advanced laboratory, so even if you unlocked 4 of them, you wont be able to make them till you unlock another techs to be able to make the laboratory. This leads to mass-gear unlock which instantly starts to render each other obsolete because the moment you finish the research, its direct upgrade shows up. I have yet to get powerarmour AND not get Juggernaut after the research is done, the only reason to ever make powerarmour would be economic, but usually by the time you can make juggernaut armour, you wont have a shortage of aqua plastics.

82

The X-Com Files / Re: For the second time I failed the planet. Please help.

« on: March 27, 2021, 12:15:50 am »

The Kitsune is fantastic, especially considering when you can get it. Although I do think the Ironfist deserves consideration as transport of choice when it becomes available

Ironfist is a clear upgrade to Skymarshall, it wields the name of heavy infantry transport quite well. Not only it can carry alot of troops, it has rooftop staircase which can be used to throw grenades or fire mortars from or just in general against melee enemies, being able to shoot them from high ground can be quite useful when not everyone has flying suits.

Two problems, it cannot defend itself and it runs on Zubrite and not Elerium so the fuel is harder to come by and the way you can secure a steady source of it is to finish the underwater arc which isnt exactly the easiest since its filled to brim with hard hitting enemies and your troops being considerably penalized in all departments. So before that, you are forced to do more underwater missions or intercept depth-related UFO to get Zubrite containers just to be able to use this vehicle elsewhere.

Osirion sometimes drop Zubrite canysters in their crates but i wouldnt relly on RNG so i can even launch a mission.

83

The X-Com Files / Re: For the second time I failed the planet. Please help.

« on: March 24, 2021, 11:22:24 pm »

It really felt for me like I was pretty fast, rather than slow. I capture people even when failing. At the other hand, maybe I skipped too much missions - I don't like some of them and I honestly scared about going to some higher tier cult missions without 8+ men. I wish the mod was more like Xpiratez in the term of skipping stuff. Or maybe the ability to buy needed research, like, again, in Xpiratez.
Also, I could not mouse click till the very last OXCE update, cause I'm on mobile. The last update was great, because it brought me buttons in battlescape.   

When dealing with cults, just blitz against Red Dawn, they have the least bullshit for a starting enemy (No energy weapons, no psionics, no monsters, no super armoured units). Then really just keep researching and focus on the other cults once you get a good armour that can reliably stop bullets instead of trying to take all 4 of them at the start.

Another tip, if you can find all 4 cult higher ups you will unlock Osprey VTOL which can ferry tanks and alot more soldiers than Dragonfly.

Furthermore, if you can catch a whiff of research related to Kitsune, go for it and ignore everything else, this research lets you rebuild a craft that has tons of useful things for mid game.
Kitsune doesnt require end game research and doesnt require Elerium, it runs on standard aircraft fuel

It can also

• Fly to space
• Really fast and global range
• Its one of the few transports that can actually fight back or be even used as emergency interceptor, albeit its fragile
• Carries sufficient number of troops and can carry vehicles
• It has an empty space beneath it, under the ramp, your troops can hide under it so enemies cannot hit them with grenades unless they are very close, perfect for clearing the landing site

So Kitsune is a godsend, unique vehicle that can easily skyrocket XCOM through the game. Hell even in late games i use it till i get Avenger since it doesnt require elerium, doesnt get molested by random tiny drones that happened to fly by and intercepted it (This sucks if it happens on unarmed craft like Skymarshall and you are just sitting and waiting for the drone to ram the craft and destroy it).

To get the even basic interceptors (MIG) you need promotion III, to get promotion III you need well uh, lets say the easiest one is "in to the darkness" tech, which is unlocked by researching motion sensors, UFO signiatures, alive spider and alive shambler.

Or Deep One  communities if you can capture one from Dagon missions.

84

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.7: Market Corrections

« on: March 16, 2021, 08:18:19 pm »

From other mods i know, silence is the mark of progress.

Though, regarding of if it changes early game i have doubts, UAC isnt early game stuff, neither is Proteanism.
Zephyr serum though might be a game changing consumable, but nothing warranting a full restart.
Carapace plating (webwear against concussive damage) does change the early game somewhat, but nothing worthy of a full restart

85

The X-Com Files / Re: Not sure if it's working as inteded

« on: March 09, 2021, 07:42:33 pm »

Maybe when there is an arc, and not just one big placeholder working like vanilla.

Wait, that is going be changed too ?
Oh boy, you really wont leave a stone unturned and i must respect you for that.

86

The X-Com Files / Re: Not sure if it's working as inteded

« on: March 08, 2021, 08:35:28 pm »

My apologies for not being aware that works like that, is it possible to see why is there no elerium battery tech even when I've researched engineer's on requirements list?

The way you get essential tech is retarted in my opinion, its an RNG rullette of rewards, you need to pretty much hoard engineers, leaders and commanders and integoriate navigators first to roll out ship type rolls so then when you research engineers, they can only give you tech rewards. This also damages the gradual progression since you wont have anything new for multiple months, then you get an engineer and howdy holy, now you can research three completely new branches

I would have prefer if either these things came as a reward for finishing an arc, or custom alien base sieges that will be really difficult but would give you a fix reward. But its the way it is and wont most likely change.

87

The X-Com Files / Re: Not sure if it's working as inteded

« on: March 07, 2021, 07:14:54 pm »

Do you have the required version of extender ? Skymarshall should be able to take 2 vehicles just fine.

Some tech requirements are not so clear but to make alien laser rifle clips, you need Elerium Battery tech
Though this makes sense, since the rifle itself is just a set of plastics, metal and focusing lenses and the alien part of it is the power source, so you need to get more from looting Hybrid and Alien corpses.
And there is a small problem though, the moment you get Elerium Battery, you will most likely be able to construct other, more damaging weapons so alien laser weapons are redundant the moment you get the battery tech

Battery tech, unlocks (Or is a part of a requirement) for these things

88

The X-Com Files / Re: Regarding Base Defense changes (if any)

« on: March 06, 2021, 08:13:57 pm »

There are no missile strikes in XCF at this point.

I plan to add it as part of the Reptoid arc, provided that I'll ever get around to work on that.

What is that suppose to be ? Like missile launched by enemies that try to damage the base if you dont have base defences ?
How would Reptoids do that ? Underground vessel entering the base, triggering base defence mission without prior warning makes more sense. Missiles would make sense for Black Sun or Men in Black cuz they have the industrial capacity.

89

The X-Com Files / Re: Regarding Base Defense changes (if any)

« on: March 05, 2021, 04:10:51 pm »

If your base is empty (no combat personal) UFO will destroy it instantly.
 
Defences reduce the number of enemies present, you can stack them + gravity shield so everything fires twice.
If you have sufficient firepower, its possible to destroy the UFO outright and you will be spared.

Though destroying large UFO will take some firepower, but for example, if Syndicate tries to enter your base via Scarab dropship (?) it will get pulverized and explode to thousand pieces before it lands.

90

The X-Com Files / Re: Lo Wo and Natasha Morozova

« on: March 04, 2021, 04:25:44 pm »

Yes
Though make it count, you wont get another shot at this.

Red Dawn troops will surely be suprised how much XCOM has upgraded since they last fought with them.
And Lo Wo is quite strong, dont let him melee anything, he can kill a sectopod with his sword just like that.